more grammar questions

[tanithryudo]

There was a meeting between the President and the Joint Chiefs. - Should "President" as in "of the U.S." be capitalized?

"Now calm down there, son," said the general. - Should "son" be capitalized if it's one of those figures of speech and not actually the speaker's son? What about if the addressee is the speaker's son?

All of the victims were human, not Jaffa or Asgard. - Should "human" be capitalized? It's weird because you would expect other alien species/race references to get capitalized...

Comments

[cashew.insanejournal.com]

President - Capitalized

Son - Not capitalized, in either scenario

Human - Not capitalized. You wouldn't say "all the victims were Lions". No, it would be "all the victims were lions". Species names are only capitalized (and italicized) if using the scientific name, e.g. Homo sapiens. Alien or no, species still work the same way. On the other hand, if "Jaffa" or "Asgard" are species names, then I question their capitalization, as one doesn't see things like "elf" or "orc" capitalized (usually).

(Then again, humans are pretty ego centric, hence "earth" not capitalized, but ever other planet, e.g. Mercury, are. By that convention, "humans" will still remain uncapitalized.)

[tanithryudo.insanejournal.com]

On your last parenthetical point... are you sure about "earth"?

They arrived in orbit around Earth. - I assume that in cases like this, "Earth" would be capitalized as the name of a planet.

[cashew.insanejournal.com]

"Earth" and "moon" and "sun" are only capitalized "when those names appear in a context in which other (capitalized) celestial bodies are mentioned". (Source: Grammar CCC (http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/capitals.htm))

So yes, I'm sure.

[tanithryudo.insanejournal.com]

Hm... but when talking about the moon/sun, you usually say "they arrived at the moon" or "they could see the sun" and not "they arrived at moon", etc.

So would that mean if you say "they returned to the earth", it's not capitalized, but saying "they returned to Earth", it is?

It would be easier if the language made it easy to use the Latin terms for everything... eg. "They could see Sol in the day and Luna at night when they arrived on Terra". But no one talks like that. >_<

Addendum

[cashew.insanejournal.com]

Not capitalizing earth actually makes sense in a way, since all the other planet names originated as names of deities. Hence why "Gaia" would be capitalized when referring to earth, but "earth" itself is not (unless the previously mentioned exception is in play).

[tanithryudo.insanejournal.com]

Re: the species references...

Hm... well, "Jaffa" definitely seems to be a species reference. It's not a national or regional reference since they come from different planets and don't really have a single national identity even after the fall of their Goa'uld overlords. I guess I'm just too used to seeing it being capitalized in fics to visualize it any other way.

As for the Asgard (and Goa'uld), I guess it could be considered a national reference than species. The Vanir are a separate political entity from the Asgard but are the same species. The Tok'ra are a separate political entity from the Goa'uld but are the same species. So I guess they would be capitalized similar to Earth nations such as "British", "Danish", etc. Si?

[cashew.insanejournal.com]

If "Jaffa" is a species name, then it should not, according to English grammar, be capitalized. On the other hand, English grammar is disgustingly filled with exceptions and never had to deal with alien species, so maybe the in-universe explanation is that new rules were developed with dealing with this problem?

If Asgard is national reference, then it makes sense to capitalize.